The Breakdown:

What is Psychology?

I live in Redlands just south of the City of Highland, CA. home to one of only three California State Hospitals for the criminally insane – Patton State Hospital. Acquaintances that I have known to work there have told me that below ground in one area of the hospital there still exist cells with shackles attached to the walls – a reminder of the barbaric way in which potentially dangerous, mentally ill people were once treated before the age of psychotropic medications and therapy.

Here are some of the highlights of systems still in use today: 1774 Franz Mesmer came up with a cure for mental illness known as mesmerism. Today we call it hypnosis.

In 1797 Philippe Pinel is credited with the first moral treatment of the mentally ill while working at Bisetre Hospital in France, by favoring the straight jacket over the shackles. Mental wards today use 4-point restraints for out-of-control patients. By the 1850s we had begun to understand that different parts of the brain had difference functions following an accident to a man named Phineas Gage that changed his personality. In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt founded the first formal psychology laboratory and in 1890 New York State passed the State Care Act, ordering indigent mentally ill patients out of poor-houses and into state hospitals for treatment and developing the first institution in the U.S. for psychiatric research.

The most famous name in the history of psychology is that of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud's revolutionary theory of psychoanalysis is based on the concept that individuals are unaware of the many factors that cause their behavior and emotions. Psychoanalysis sought to explain the complex relationship between the body and the mind, and further the understanding of the role of emotions in medical illness and health. Psychoanalytic treatment is highly individualized and seeks to show how the unconscious factors affect behavior patterns, relationships, and overall mental health. The value and validity of psychoanalysis as a theory and treatment have been questioned since its inception in the early 1900s. Critics dispute many aspects of psychoanalysis including whether or not it is indeed a science; the value of the data upon which Freud based his theories; and the method and effectiveness of psychoanalytic treatment. However, no critic can deny the fact that psychoanalysis is indeed a "great" idea of human personality; it provides great insight into the inner workings of the human mind, provides a deeper understanding as to the fundamental problems that cause mental illness, and it’s controversial nature has resulted in the investigation and development of many other psychological theories, hence Freud is often referred to as the "father of modern psychology". (Gay, P. (1989). Sigmund Freud: A brief life. In J. Strachy (Ed.), An outline of psychoanalysis (pp. vii-xx). New York: Norton.)

Reading: read through Ch 1 P. 3-18 & 28-31.

Study: Ch 1 P. 19-27

How Psychologists do Research?

One of the arguments in the modern era is whether psychology is a true science, and much work has been done to give it the same standing as other science disciplines. Put simply, research refers to the detailed study of something in order to either find out something new, or to prove or disprove a theory that has already been proposed.

Psychology experiments can range from simple to complex, but there are some basic terms and concepts:

• The Scientific Method: Psychologists use the scientific method to conduct studies and research in psychology. The basic process for conducting psychology research involves asking a question, designing a study, collecting data, analyzing results, reaching conclusions and sharing the findings.
• Correlational Research Methods: Correlational studies are one of the two major types of psychology research. Correlational studies are frequently used in psychology research to look for relationships between variables. While correlational studies can suggest that there is a relationship between two variables, finding a correlation does not prove that one variable causes a change in another variable. In other words, correlation does not equal causation.
• Experimental Research Methods: The simple experiment is one of the most basic methods of determining if there is a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables. A simple experiment utilizes a control group of participants who receive no treatment and an experimental group of participants who receive the treatment. Experimenters then compare the results of the two groups to determine if the treatment had an effect.
• Reliability: This refers to the consistency of a measure. A test is considered reliable if we get the same result repeatedly.
• Validity: One of the greatest concerns when creating a psychological test is whether or not it actually measures what we think it is measuring. A valid test ensures that the results are an accurate reflection of the dimension undergoing assessment.

Reading: Ch.2 P. 33-65

Study: P. 53 Review 2.1 & P. 59 Review 2.2

The ethics of research has often been established after the fact – here is one of the most famous cases of research gone wrong:

The Stanford prison experiment was a psychological study of human responses to captivity and its behavioral effects on both authorities and inmates in prison. It was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. Undergraduate volunteers played the roles of both guards and prisoners living in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their roles, stepping beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted and leading to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. One-third of the guards were judged to have exhibited "genuine" sadistic tendencies, while many prisoners were emotionally traumatized and two had to be removed from the experiment early. Zimbardo and his team intended to test the hypothesis that prison guards and convicts were self-selecting of a certain disposition that would naturally lead to poor conditions. The experiment very quickly got out of hand. Prisoners suffered—and accepted—sadistic and humiliating treatment at the hands of the guards, and by the end many showed severe emotional disturbance. As the experiment proceeded, several of the guards became progressively more sadistic. Experimenters said approximately one-third of the guards exhibited "genuine" sadistic tendencies. Interestingly, most of the guards were upset when the experiment was cut off early. The Stanford experiment ended on August 20, 1971, only 6 days after it began instead of the 14 it was supposed to have lasted. The experiment's result has been argued to demonstrate the impressionability and obedience of people when provided with a legitimizing ideology and social and institutional support. It is also used to illustrate cognitive dissonance theory and the power of authority. (Adapted from Wikipedia.org)

The modern day equivalent of almost exactly this situation was the scandal regarding the treatment of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Graib. The common argument by those enlisted servicemen who were charged in that scandal was that they were just following orders.

Genes, Evolution & Environment

Genes are quite simply the instructions for building the proteins that make living organisms function. Evolution is that controversial subject that says living organisms started out one way but changed (evolved) over time into another form because of the need to adapt to a changing environment. The environment, of course, is everything around us – physical, biological, and social.

Genetics is a science all of its own which is moving forward rapidly after the US Human Genome project was completed in 2003 identifying all 25,000+ human genes within our DNA. Having a basic knowledge of genetics is important to the aspiring psychologist because it helps us sort out inherited from learned characteristics. For example, when dealing with someone with an alcohol problem, it helps us to know whether he/she comes from a family of alcoholics. Neuroscience has shown us that the condition known as tolerance with regards to alcohol for example, is inherited – that the brain evolves over generations raising the tolerance with each generation. The result is that two teenagers might experiment with beer for the first time – one from an alcoholic family, the other not. The one from the alcoholic family will have a higher tolerance and will therefore be able to drink say, a six pack before feeling the same effect as his friend who only drinks three beers. Thus over time the one from the alcoholic family is likely to develop a problem due to the amount of alcohol he is able to consume before feeling the effects. This inheritance would also be considered an evolutionary change.

Another example of evolution can be seen in the way youngsters (possibly even you) dial numbers on the phone. My generation usually uses one finger on the dominant hand to dial a number but with the age of videogames, the younger generation has become very agile with both thumbs equally and will be seen dialing a phone number or sending a text using both thumbs!

Reading: Ch. 3 P. 67-80

Study: Ch. 3 P. 73-75 Know the 5 innate human characteristics

If you ever have the time or interest to study the many works of Noam Chomsky, I would highly recommend it. He is probably one of this generation’s foremost thinkers and in my opinion, one of the most ignored. His work on language acquisition is an important contribution to developmental psychology and is still the subject of dispute today. Chomsky argued that children have an innate knowledge of the basic grammatical structure common to all human languages; the presence of this "Universal Grammar" in the brains of children allows them to deduce the structure of their native languages from "mere exposure". This theory is disputed by those who come from the "social interactionist" school of thought who state that the effects of acting within and reacting upon one’s environment, plays a fundamental role in all development including language.

Reading: Ch. 3 P. 81-99

Sociobiology focuses on the idea that some behavior is inherited and some develops through natural selection. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) took this theory and hypothesized that all species of life have evolved over time from one or a few common ancestors through the process of natural selection.

Darwin's contributions to psychology may be grouped under three main headings:

(1) his doctrine of the evolution of instinct and the part played by intelligence in the process;

(2) the evolution of mind from the lowest animal to the highest man; and

(3) the expressions of emotion.

The intellect, the magnitude of which separates the human from all other animals, is not unique to humans; it is quite well developed in a number of the other higher order animals. The intellect developed as a control over instincts to provide adaptable behavior. According to Darwin, the human is designed by nature (evolution) to modify any behavior that would normally be instinctive to one that would provide optimum benefit (survivability). This process is called self-control or self-discipline, and is the major difference between the human and the lower order animals, those that apply only instinct to their behavioral decisions. Self-discipline, therefore, is the measuring stick of the human. The more disciplined behavior (behavior determined by intellect) displayed by the individual, the more human he becomes. The less disciplined behavior (behavior in response to instinct) displayed by an individual, the more he becomes like the lower order animals that are lacking in intellect and are driven by their instincts.

With the publication of his Descent of Man (1871) and Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), Darwin gradually worked out theories of the evolution of human mentality. During April 1838, he spent some time watching the apes and monkeys at the gardens; and he reflected on their emotional out-bursts, which seemed to him quite human-like. He was especially interested in an orangutan that "kicked & cried, precisely like a naughty child" when teased by its keeper. In his notebooks he placed such typical reactions within the framework of his theory of instinct: "Expression is an hereditary habitual movement consequent on some action, which the progenitor did, when excited or disturbed by the same cause, which now excites the expression." So, for example, Darwin speculated that the emotional response of that the emotional response of surprise—raised eyebrows, retracted eyelids, etc.—had arisen by association with our ancestors’ efforts to see objects in dim light; now when the analogously unexpected object or event confronted us, we would react in an instinctual way, even though the light was perfectly adequate. Emotional expression had its roots in instinct, and, in Darwin’s view, reason did as well. (Turner, Jonathan: Human Emotions: A Sociological Theory January 2009 H. T & F Books UK)

Whatever opinion you yourself hold of the Darwin theory of evolution, it is important to understand how all these different factors have influenced human development, thinking and behavior.

Study: Ch. 3 P. 86-97 Understand the meaning of heritability, the influences on environment and intelligence, and the difference between nature v. nurture.

Discussion Question:

What is your understanding of psychology and what relevance do you think it has in the world?